Annie's 6th Birthday!

 

So this was Annie, waiting patiently for this birthday biscuit whilst we sang "Happy Birthday" to her whilst on a walk over the fields!

This delicious looking biccie (they smelt like hooman food!) was from a pack from Julia & James and she took home some biscuits and a birthday cake from Daisy's Dog Empawium in Bluewater.

Hard to believe we've had this girl back in the family for the last four years, especially when there were plenty of traumatic times in 2019 when we thought we'd never see her again 😭

But sense finally prevailed, she came back to Chez Bailey and has been living like the Doggie Diva she is ever since 🐶

Her intelligence and Alpha Female traits never cease to amaze me, I've never come across a dog like her before. No wonder she failed the GD training, Annie is not a dog to be expected to toe the line, she is independent, wilful, deeply loyal and only willing to live her life on her own terms. Everything we came to love about her when she was with us during her training.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIE!!!

Bespoke Furniture Cover

 

So my bespoke furniture cover arrived earlier than anticipated and here it is, in situ, covering the new stackable decking furniture.

Left the cheap kettle BBQ one underneath but this cover is uber thick, like an oilskin tarp kind of material and has a handle on each side. You can request different bottoms to them, drawstring, zipper, metal eyelets etc. I went for just a simple hem as I've no need for anything else. Whilst the furniture will be stored inside the garage and so the cover won't be outside, it would easily cope with all sorts of inclement weather.

Really impressed with the quality and sizing, it can be real hard to find covers to pop over your outside furniture and this company can help take the guesswork out by creating bespoke items.

Halloween & Harvest Festival Exhibition

 

On another day of my weeks leave I popped down into Rochester to Eastgate House for their Halloween and Harvest Festival Exhibition.

I love Halloween and it was a good mix of the two subjects with plenty of informative cards at each display.

This display was explaining the origins of Trick and Treat.

One of the favs was a piece explaining what was expected of a housewife back in the day...

Apparently there were even a few books on the subject, written by men naturally!

St Mary's Island

 

So spent one of my days on my week off visiting St Mary's Island. This was a favourite image shot using the trees as a frame for the houses looking over the far basin.

Tedster and I had a lovely warm day in the sunshine and enjoyed the mooch with the M50 camera.

New Decking Furniture!

 

So this is the new decking furniture for next year - a compact, bottle shaped stacking set for two which quite frankly, considering it's just me, myself & I most of the time, is plenty big enough.

The existing set will have a new home next Spring at Chez Bailey.

This is much easier to manoeuvre on and off the decking, I can easily do it on my own, no need to call in the cavalry to help plus it will take up far less space in the garage during the winter months.

For now it's allowing me to also enjoy this last minute.com Autumn sunshine:

Table is still wrapped in it's protective cellophane but it looks good on the decking, is easily moved around with the sun and seems low enough to the ground to prevent a build up of leaves underneath. Also I quite enjoy the decking being less crowded, I'll still pop the bistro table and chair up there no doubt next Summer but for now I can pop one of these chairs up there whenever there's enough sun and time to sit up there for a while.

Which is where I spent most of this afternoon :-)

Ordered a bespoke cylindrical cover to pop over it when stored away for the winter, gonna get a folding crate to hold all the knicknacks and lights for next year and then I should be able to store it all in a much smaller space next year. Maybe two crates given all the stuff I have!

And this time around I went for the grey rather than the black (which is in fact a charcoal grey) as I think it stands out a bit more than the darker colour plus you can more easily see the striped effect. Whilst the little cushions are handy for aesthetics in reality there isn't really the room for a back cushion - more useful to create a good photo and ambiance than practical.

Anyways, uber pleased with the latest purchase and I look forward to using it in earnest next year. 

First Dahlia Flower 😍

 

So this is the first dahlia flower I've had from my five tuber varieties I planted way back in the early part of the year. This is Lucca Johanna and is only the second plant to have grown and survived being eaten by whatever.

Considering how much I love dahlias and how expensive the tubers were to buy I am considerably disappointed in what has actually managed to grow and more importantly flower.

The front garden tuber has been dug up and I may offload the others, at least two more, to my Dad who seems to have a better time in growing them. If I'm going to have a pot plant I'd rather it be a hydrangea than a dahlia at this rate.

I'd such high hopes for these plants, imagining them flowering all over the summer and filling my garden with bursts of colour. Sadly that's not been the case. Some never grew at all (I admit to planting a couple upside-down) and the rest were methodically picked off by the local wildlife. Definitely buying the pukka slug pellets next year, no more of this watered down "kind to everything" variety. I'm sick of the buggers eating my plants like they are some sort of private salad bar 😭

Lets hope I have better luck with the Spring Bulbs!